Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for nine capital acquisition proposals of approx. Rs 45,000 crore on September 15. The approval was granted in a meeting of the DAC held under the chairmanship of Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh. All these procurements will be made from Indian vendors under Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDMM)/Buy (Indian) category.
This will give a substantial boost to the Indian defence Industry towards achieving the goal of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, said a statement issued by the defence ministry.
The DAC has accorded the AoN for the procurement of Light Armoured Multipurpose Vehicles (LAMV) and Integrated Surveillance and Targeting System (ISAT-S). This will help in enhancing protection, mobility, attack capability and increased survivability of Mechanised Forces.
Another AoN was cleared by the Council for procurement of High Mobility Vehicle (HMV) Gun Towing Vehicles for swift mobilisation and deployment of Artillery Guns and Radars.
The DAC also approved the procurement of Next Generation Survey Vessels for the Indian Navy which will greatly enhance its capabilities in performing Hydrographic Operations.
The DAC also accorded AoN for proposals of the Indian Air Force which included the Avionic upgradation of Dornier Aircraft to improve the accuracy and reliability of operations. Apart from this, procurement of Dhruvastra Short Range Air-to-Surface Missile as a potent Indigenous Precision Guided Weapon for indigenously built ALH Mk-IV Helicopters has also been cleared by the DAC.
The AoN for the procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI Aircraft with associated equipment from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was also accorded. It is notable that HAL manufactures the Su-30 MKI aircraft in India under licence from Sukhoi, and it is the main fighter plane of the IAF at present.
During the meeting, Rajnath Singh stated that it is time to upgrade the ambitions towards indigenisation. “Rather than a threshold of 50% indigenous content for IDDM projects, we should aim for a minimum 60-65% indigenous content,” he said.
The defence minister directed the Chief of Defence Staff, Service Chiefs, Defence Secretary and DG (Acquisition) to work towards increasing the minimum indigenous content threshold in consultation with the Indian Industry.